ICON Newsletter #32 - ICON 2.0: Batang - The Foundation for the Future

Greeting ICONists,

Two weeks ago, we announced ICON 2.0, a.k.a Batang, a brand new software that uses an enhanced and completely rewritten blockchain engine: ‘Goloop.’ A little background about the word 'Batang’: Batang is a common Korean word meaning “foundation” or “base,” and we think it is a perfect fit for the next phase of ICON’s growth.

For the past year, we have been developing this new technology, and it’s one of our most important achievements to date. Batang provides an improved blockchain experience over the existing Python-based loopchain. It is a 1) faster, 2) more stable, and 3) scalable high-performance blockchain that completely overhauls the ICON mainnet that launched in 2018. 

Stay tuned for additional information and discussion around these developments, and please join in the conversations at forum.icon.community.

Thanks,

Min Kim

ICON Foundation Council Member

ICYMI: The Stin, an Austrian-based gin distiller, is set to use ICON (ICX) to transparently track its supply chain.

block42 will be combining near-field communication (NFC) technology with the ICON blockchain to maximize the security of the tracking system.

NFC chips and devices function as electronic identity documents and keycards and are currently used in contactless payment systems and mobile payments services that replace credit cards.

For The Stin’s supply chain, block42 will be fitting 999 bottles of the distiller’s limited-edition gin with crypto-enabled NFC chips. These enable consumers to scan the bottles in order to check their authenticity and track the total number of bottles still available in the limited edition series.

ICON Hyperhack was a 2 month online hackathon that opened registrations and submissions on June 19th and lasted until September 14th. The hackathon reached over 450 participants with 13 new projects completed.

Check out the winners from the individual categories: DeFi, utility and NFT/Gaming. They can be found here. We cant wait to see the progress to come!

Not a week goes by without a new and exciting development in Korea with ICONLOOP’s progress. The past two weeks included announced MoU’s with Danal/Paycoin, a leading payments company, and Pohang City, POSCO, & POSTECH.

Danal is a global giant with over $5 Billion in market share, the largest in the mobile payment industry with 100K+ merchants. Their fintech project, Paycoin, will integrate ICONLOOP’s blockchain & MyID. Additionally, ICONLOOP and Danal/Paycoin will explore future collaboration opportunities.

ICONLOOP and Pohang City-POSCO-POSTECH signed an MoU to build a Pohang data ecosystem. ICONLOOP plans to cooperate to create a digital ID ecosystem in Pohang City based on MyID, and aims to create a practical smart citizen life with the use of blockchain technology. Pohang is a city of 500,000, POSCO was the largest steel manufacturer in the world (currently 4th) & POSTECH is the Caltech of Korea!

Additionally, we were able to get a sneak peek of the progress thus far with the Jeju Island COVID-19 tracing program. As it stands, over 100 businesses (60 provincial offices and 44 private companies) are participating in the pilot. Check out more details below.

Not to be outdone by all the ICONLOOP news, ICON Foundation struck a partnership with Conflux Network. Conflux Network, a state-endorsed public, permissionless blockchain project out of China, announced a strategic technical partnership of its cross-chain protocol with ICON Foundation.

In the era of DeFi and with the growth of public blockchain interest in Korea and China, we believe this is an important strategic partnership to drive growth in our respective regions. We look forward to sharing more details as we progress!

Stay tuned!